Category: sport

TT Time

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It’s the Isle of Man TT Races fortnight. Practice and qualifying this week, actual races next week.

And as usual, the weather hasn’t really been playing ball so far, so there have been a few delays and a few tweaks to the running order. As ever, they do as much as they can for rider safety, and so the pre-startline announcements as to which bits of the track might be a bit slippery are hugely important.

Although, the effectiveness of those announcements does depend on you knowing which bits of the track are called what. And if you’re a new rider… well…

Bit awkward when you’re about to chuck yourself around the course at an average anything up to 136mph (220kph).

I’m not really into the racing, but I am into the Isle of Man, and so when the highlights shows make it through to DSTV, I’m always happy to see the island, the scenery, the people and yes: some of the ridiculous displays of testicular fortitude out along the 37¾ mile circuit.

If you can’t wait that long (it’s only next week, but hey) or if you’ve never heard of the TT before, then I would strongly encourage you to go and check out one (or more) of the daily round up videos of all the action on the Official Isle Of Man TT Races channel on Youtube. Expert commentary, honest opinion, superb production.

That’s it.

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That’s it. After that result at Wembley, obviously, I’m giving up on football.

Aside from the La Liga stuff I watched yesterday after the playoff game.
And the DfB Pokal final last night.

But that really is it.

Well, I did just watch the Girona v Atletico Madrid game.
And I will be watching several (or more) Premier League games this evening after some Villareal v Sevilla.

And then maybe the Bilbao game at 9 tonight.

And that will be that.

OK, maybe the UEFA finals on Wednesday and Saturday.
That’s just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.

And then perhaps the FIFA Club World Cup, just because you can’t go full cold turkey. That’s dangerous.

And maybe some more English football after that, because there will be a new season to watch.

But then that’s it. I’ve learned my lesson.

Possibly.

All for nothing?

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No matter who wins this afternoon’s little matchup in North London, it’s going to be a massive struggle for them to stay in the Premier League next season. The last six clubs promoted to the top flight have come straight back down, and between them, scored a record number of points. And not a record number in a good way.

Why is this? Well, the gulf between the two leagues has always been opening up, but it seems that soon after Covid, it widened into a chasm of epic proportions. And if you were in there when this happened, you now seem to have some sort of protection against relegation.

So suddenly, you have the likes of Bournemouth, Fulham, Brentford and Brighton battling it out for European places. And no offence to those clubs, but they’re not exactly historically the biggest teams. But they were in the mix when it counted and now they are the new biggest teams.

Of course, 95% of it comes down to money. Plucky performances and passionate support can only do so much. And how on earth are Championship cubs meant to compete when there’s this level of financial disparity?

When you don’t have European football, and when you don’t have an assured place in the Premier League, you simply can’t attract big players. And the double whammy is that the opposition can.
And thanks to English teams performing way above the average in the European competitions this year, there could be as many as 10 of the 17 existing teams in the Premier League playing in Europe next year. Six of them will be in the top tier on the chart below, another four in that second tier.

There’s a lot of money splashing around for the other clubs when you aren’t in those top two bands.

Spurs and ManU might have had absolutely awful seasons this time around, but they were still miles clear of the relegation places. There’s just no competition anymore when it comes to going down. And while that might be a very comfortable position for the established clubs, it will slowly(?) kill the league.

Of course, I hope we go up this afternoon. We have played brilliantly all season and we deserve to celebrate with something to show for it. But at the back of my mind (and those of dirty l**ds and Burnley fans, if they’re being honest), is the tinge of realism that next season will be a hard watch.

Still… let’s deal with that if and when we have to.
COME ON YOU RED AND WHITE WIZZZZZAAAAARDS!

EDIT: OK, a few days later now and that didn’t go well.
But I have just spotted this:

Which does kind of prove the point.

Putting things right

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Remember this post about a kak afternoon at the races?

None of the horses that we wanted to win, won.
And that was quite annoying.
At first, it was just a bit annoying, but then, as the sequence continued, it got more and more annoying.

Well, let the record show that not every afternoon at the races is kak.

Because we turned out today in the cold, wet, windy weather and with limited expectations, and then this happened:

Not my pics*: I was just there for moral support (and to win a bit of cash).

And we had a lot of stuff to get done, so with the obligatory interviews and a quick glass of bubbly out of the way, we left with happy hearts and slightly fuller wallets.

This was a good lunchtime at the races.

* edge patrol on that second one!!!!

Opponents and internet hypocrisy

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So, thanks to a 120+2 winning goal, it’s Sunderland that get through to face United in the Playoff Final next Saturday. Got to love that last minute winning feeling. As the “Football Away Days” FB page shared:

And it is a great photo, depicting a great moment. I’ve spotted at least two phones, but let’s not let that detract from the image and the impressive description.

No, let’s allow… er… the “Football Away Days” FB page to do that for themselves, by suggesting that the last minute winning goal (see above) should never have been allowed to happen:

Extra points for using an image taken a whole 2 seconds before the one at the top of this post.

Got to keep all the fans happy? Easy!
Simply use the narrative that Sunderland fans are amazing, and that Coventry City were cleared robbed. Just don’t do it in the same post. Separate them by at least a couple of minutes.

Well done. I’m sure that no-one has noticed.